NO. 2540<\/b><\/p>\n
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S-DAY, OCTOBER 24TH, 1897,<\/b><\/p>\n
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,<\/b><\/p>\n
In connection with the dedication of the Jubilee House, which commemorated thecompletion of the beloved Pastor\u2019s fiftieth year, June 19th, <\/i>1884. \u2019 This Sermon was the fourth of the series delivered by MR. Spurgeon in connection with his Jubilee in 1884, and was partly revised by the beloved preacher, <\/i>but never published. The first was No. 2,538, \u201cAn Epistle Illustrated by a Psalm.\u201d The second was No. 2,539, \u201cThe Joy of Holy Households.\u201d The third was the last Sermon but one ever revised by MR. Spurgeon <\/i>No. 2,237, \u201cGratitude for Deliverance from the Grave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.\u201d \u2014 Psalm 118:17.<\/i><\/p>\n
I could not deal with all the text on the last occasion, so I return to it. May the Holy Spirit bedew the Word afresh, and make it a joy to meditate thereon!<\/p>\n
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I. <\/b>Many Are The Works Of The Lord. Are not all things his workmanship, from the heights of heaven down to the deep places of the earth? From the remotest star blazing in magnificence of light, down to the gnat which dances in the beams of the evening\u2019s sun, the Lord\u2019s hand is everywhere seen. The Lord hath made all things: creation is the work of his fingers. He continues to work all things according to the good pleasure of his will. Some of these works are plain and manifest to all; if men have eyes to see, they have only to open them, and they may behold God working all around them,-above, beneath, and everywhere. Others of his works are secret, and not discerned by the organs of the body. These things are only to be fully perceived by faith as to their inner meaning, even when in their historical outcome they are seen of men. The great work of accomplished redemption was seen by those who lived in our Lord\u2019s day, in the offering of the great Sacrifice; yet they saw it not in truth. It is clearly seen by the eye of faith though centuries have rolled away, but the eye of sense saw it not even when transacted openly. That other gracious work of God, which is carried on within the soul, is only to be known to the man who himself experiences it, though its results are manifest enough to others. So that there are \u2014 works of God which will never be known to the mass of mankind except as his children testify concerning them. It should be with us a great object of our existence to bear witness to these mysterious deeds of grace: we ought to say, in the language of our Master, \u201cTo this end were we born, and for this cause came we into the world, that we should bear witness unto the truth.\u201d We are to live to declare these works of the Lord.<\/p>\n
Let me very briefly recount certain of those works of God which we can declare. I think that this term may apply in a certain sense to all God\u2019s works. For instance, I have said that creation is open to every man\u2019s observation, and that he, if he will, may see that God is there; yet very many men do not perceive God to be the Author of nature. They do not will to perceive him, and it is for you and for me, therefore, whenever we talk about the wisdom which is to be seen in creation, most distinctly to refer the things which exist to the hand of the Lord. A scientific man does great service when he sanctifies his science by pointing out the traces of the divine handiwork. While others see only the creation, he goes further, and sees the Creator. You and I may not rank with the scientific, but that need not hinder us from bearing our testimony to the Lord\u2019s working, for the naked eye suffices to cause wonder and adoration. When we gaze upon majestic scenery of mountain and sea, while others are entirely taken up with the beauty of the prospect, it is for us to say with Milton, \u2014 <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! Thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sitt\u2019st above these heavens<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
To us invisible, or dimly seen
In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Thus we can preach the sermon of which the beautiful in nature is the text. If men will not go \u201cfrom nature up to nature\u2019s God,\u201d \u2014 as they never will till they first come down from God to nature, \u2014 we at least can point the way. We can say to them, \u201cWe cannot suffer you to look on all these majestic works without telling you who it is that in wisdom has made them all.\u201d Thus we shall, like the psalmist, \u201cdeclare the works of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Think, next, of the work of God in providence<\/i>. If men would but observe it, the hand of God is clearly to be seen in human history, both in the great records of nations and in the little stories of private lives. He who will watch for providences need not be long without spying them out. We can see evidences of design as clearly in the deeds of human life as we can in the works of nature; but, often, men will not see them. Consequently, if you do see them, my brother, declare them. Make the ungodly man see the hand of God; or, if you cannot make him see it, yet at least let him know that you see it, and that surely the hand of God is in all the workings of providence. Have you not some personal story to tell of how the Lord has interposed for your help? I will not insult you with the question; for, if you have led a Christian life for years, you must have many, many such records concerning the lovingkindness of the Lord laid up in store in your memory. Bring these out, let them not lie by, as on a mouldy shelf; but bring them out, and tell to others\u2019 what God has done for you in the ordering of the ordinary or extraordinary events of your life. \u201cDeclare the works of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Especially must you and I dwell emphatically and often upon the work of God in redemption. <\/i>Are we not too slow to talk about this marvel of all marvels \u2014 this greatest wonder of time and of eternity, \u2014 that God came here in our flesh to suffer, bleed, and die, that he might work out our redemption? All this is plainly written in the Word of God, but many men do not read the Bible; then, let them see it, and hear it. Be walking Bibles. Often tell \u201cthe old, old story, of Jesus and his love.\u201d Do not wait till you can gather a great congregation; talk of it to your children, to your friends, to any with whom you are brought into contact by the providence of God. \u201cDeclare the works of the Lord\u201d which cluster around the cross. Never angel had better news to bring than you have; then, play the angel whenever you can. Be the messenger of God in telling what he has done through the redemption wrought out by his only-begotten Son in his wondrous sacrifice on Calvary.<\/p>\n
And then, dear friends, a further work of God which springs out o! our redemption is that of regeneration, <\/i>and that also we must declare. If men care little for the story of creation, providence, or redemption, they care still less for the great mystery of regeneration. They do mot believe in it; some of them, alas! hold it up to ridicule. Do not be ashamed to declare that work of the Lord; and do it mainly by exhibiting the fruit of it in your life, but also by clearly narrating your own experience whenever you have a fitting opportunity. Oh, it is a wonderful thing to have been twice born, to have been \u201cbegotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.\u201d It is a thing to be spoken of humbly, but yet most boldly, that we have passed from death unto life, that we have been brought out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God\u2019s dear Son. I think that man who was born blind, to whom our Lord Jesus afterwards gave sight, if he had lived for many years, and had mixed much in society, would have been sure somehow to turn the conversation round so that he might tell how he was once blind, but was afterwards made to see. I should not wonder if, sometimes, his friends and acquaintances were caused to smile because of the oft-told tale. They would say one to another, \u201cBefore the evening is over, we shall hear once more the story of the Prophet who anointed his eyes with the clay, and then bade him go and wash, and so caused him to find his sight! It does not matter what the subject under discussion may be, he will turn it round somehow, and drag in his narrative of the miracle, which always ends with\u2019 Whereas I was blind, now I see.\u2019\u201c \u201cAh!\u201d he would say, \u201cyou were speaking about light; do you know, there was a time when I did not know what light was? I had never seen a ray of it, but there came a wondrous Miracle-worker, called Jesus, who opened my eyes.\u201d \u201cYou spoke about water, sir, did you not? I recollect the pool of Siloam, it was wonderful water to me, when I went, and washed, and received my sight.\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d you say; \u201cI was not talking about water, I was speaking about the earth;\u201d but the man who had been blind says, \u201cOh, but I remember when I had clay put upon my eyes, and yet that clay, when I went and washed it off, was made the means of restoring me to sight!\u201d I am sure that he would get that familiar story in somehow. Well, take care that you do the same, dear brother or sister. \u201cDeclare the works of the Lord,\u201d and tell what he did for you when you were regenerated by the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n
Since then, what a scene of wonders has opened up before our astonished gaze! I do not know which day of my life was fullest of mercy since my spiritual birthday, but it does seem to me that the farther I go in the heavenly pilgrimage, the clearer is the light, the more charming the view, the sharper the lines of beauty, the more distinct the coloring, and the brighter the approaching glory. Yes, when God begins to work in us, there is no telling what is to come; it is always \u201cbetter on before.\u201d The light shines more and more unto the perfect day. Wherefore, tell more as you learn more, and publish more as you experience more; and go on for ever telling what never can be fully told. If you only told the blessings of the past, there would be a life-long story for you to tell; but as each day seems to exceed its fellow, as the days of grace so swiftly follow one another, let your testimony continually become more courageous, more clear, more frequent, as you tell to others what God has done for you. \u201cDeclare the works of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
If I were to dwell at length upon these great subjects, and then go on to mention everything that the Lord is doing for his Church, and for the maintenance and spread of his eternal truth, I should myself take up all the time with what I want to be only the preliminary to my discourse, so let us advance to my second point.<\/p>\n
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II. <\/b>These Works Of The Lord Ought To Be declared. There are always so many good and valid reasons for every one of God\u2019s commands that, though it ought to be obeyed even if no reason be givens yet it should be obeyed the more quickly when there are so many reasons clearly apparent to us. Why, then, should we declare the works of the Lord?<\/p>\n
I answer, first, for <\/i>God\u2019s glory. <\/i>This is man\u2019s chief end, \u201cto glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.\u201d O saint, how canst thou glorify God better than by declaring his works? Will you begin now to adore the Lord? Suppose I were to lead you now in an act of adoration, what should I say? How should I praise God, except by saying what God is, or what God does? We never bring anything to God from outside; but when we want to praise him most, we fetch the jewels for his crown out of his own regalia. What should we say if we began to praise him? \u201cO give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!\u201d You see, it is, all through, the story of what he is, and what he has done. This is the only way in which we can truly magnify the Lord, making him great by mentioning the greatness which he already has. Wherefore, brethren, since I am sure you would wish to pay your revenue of praise to the great King of kings, be sure that you \u201cdeclare the works of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do this, also, for the comfort of his people. <\/i>What is there that can comfort God\u2019s saints like telling them what the Lord has done, ibis love in time past, his love to others of his people, Ms love to you? You will comfort many despondent ones if you tell them how you were brought low, and the Lord helped you. One of the readiest and surest ways of lighting a candle for a child of God in the dark is to relate your own experience of the goodness of the Lord. Wherefore, then, as you want to comfort God\u2019s people, be sure that you tell out what God has clone for you.<\/p>\n
Moreover, I know that you want to guide the anxious; <\/i>and how shall they be guided so well as by telling them what the Lord does? If you begin to tell them what they <\/i>ought to do, you will only entangle them still more in the net, for what can these poor souls do to release themselves? Tell them what the Lord does for sinners, how he delivers them from the fowler\u2019s snare; tell them what a mighty arm he has to pluck them out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay; and especially dwell upon the fact that he has brought you <\/i>up out of that horrible pit, and set your feet upon a rock, and established your goings. I feel sure that this personal testimony of yours will be one of the best means of leading poor troubled anxious ones to put their trust in God.<\/p>\n
Moreover, dear brethren, tell out what the Lord has done, because it will be such a warning to the self-righteous.\u2019 <\/i>They think to go to heaven as they are; they suppose themselves to be quite fit for the spiritual kingdom. Tell them that you have been born again, declare to them what the Spirit of God wrought in you when he made all things new; and they will say to themselves, \u201cWe do not know anything about this matter, we never felt this change.\u201d And, believe me, the narration of the Holy Ghost\u2019s work in you and upon you will be more powerful to many of them than any words that I can put together. Your personal declaration of how the Lord takes away the heart of stone, and gives the heart of flesh, will induce many a man to say, \u201cI am ignorant of all this; therefore, what is to become of me?\u201d and this anxiety will lead him to fly to Christ that he also may experience the new birth, and himself be saved. Do not hesitate, then, to declare everywhere God\u2019s working in you and for you, that others may be led to rejoice in the same blessings of his grace.<\/p>\n
Besides, it gladdens the Church of God <\/i>when any are heard declaring the works of the Lord. Have you not, dear friends, often been comforted when a brother, home from a foreign land, where he has been a missionary, has told you how God has blessed him to some heathen tribe :so that it has turned to Christ? Why, as you heard his story, you felt that you also would like to be missionaries. And when God blessed you, my dear sister, in your Sunday-school class, tell others about the sweet joy you have had in seeing his Spirit working with your girls or boys; for then they also will want to enter upon some holy service for the Master. When a church gets dull and cold, \u2014 and it is very apt to do so at times, \u2014 and a kind of ignoble despondency steals over the servants of God, come and tell what the Lord did in the ages past, the glorious things which he did in our fathers\u2019 days, and in the old time before them; and then bring in a little of what you have yourself seen, how God has used you, a poor, weak, worthless instrument, to glorify himself, for so you will put new life into these desponding ones, and they will begin again to be of good courage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d says one, \u201cI have not said much about what God has done for me. It is not because I do not know him; but I have not thought it necessary to tell it.\u201d I think that no mercy of God ought to be stowed away in the cellar; everything that he does ought to be told out. Last Tuesday, I saw some four-and-twenty persons, whose names I was happy to give in to be proposed for church-membership, and I felt very happy and thankful, yet I said to myself as I went home, \u201cI am not half as glad about these numerous conversions as I ought to be.\u201d Time was when, if anybody had said to me when I began to preach, \u201cYou will sometimes see forty converts in a day. Sometimes, you shall go week after week, and see a score coming forward each week,\u201d why, I should have said, \u201cNo, that is too much; I should die of joy if I ever saw that;\u201d yet I have seen it again and again. Do you not think that God blesses us more than we praise him, and that, sometimes, if our success becomes a little less than usual, he might say to us,\u201d Well, I did use you, you know, yet you did not seem at all grateful for it. I did give you one soul, and that soul was worth a thousand worlds; but you did not seem to think anything of that. I want you to appreciate the blessings I have given before I bestow any more upon you.\u201d Why, sirs, a man might give his eyes to win a single soul, and be perfectly satisfied to go into heaven blind, with that one soul at his right hand! Better by far to enter into life blind, halt, maimed, with some companions won for Christ, than to live here with all one\u2019s eyes and faculties, and be a barren soul, and never bring a sinner to the Savior\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n
Do let us, then, bless the Lord, praise him, and declare his wondrous works. If you do, somebody will say that you are an egotist. Whenever anybody says that of me, I feel that it is so true that I do not get angry about it, because if I am not egotistical when I tell what the Lord has done for me, and by me, I daresay that I am about some other matter; and, therefore, if I do not deserve the cut of the whip for that, I do for something else; so I take it as a rebuke that I deserve some way or other. But I am not speaking with egotism any the more for that. When the Lord does a good thing in me, or for me, or by me, I will tell it; and I do conjure you to do the same. If somebody says, \u201cHe talks about himself,\u201d answer, \u201cWell, Paul was constantly doing the same thing.\u201d One of the humblest men who ever lived; yet he was continually talking about himself. You see, he knew more about himself than he did of anybody else; and he knew more about what God had done for him than of what God had done for Apollos or Cephas; and he was quite right in giving that kind of evidence which, in his own case, would be most powerful with those who had seen him, and known him, and who understood in very deed and of a truth that God had wrought great wonders in him and by him.<\/p>\n
So, then, we may continue to say that there are good reasons for declaring the works of God.<\/p>\n
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III. <\/b>Now, thirdly, Who Ought To Declare These Works Of The Lord?<\/p>\n
Well, first, let those declare them who know them. <\/i>It is a wretched business to go up into a pulpit to declare God\u2019s works, and to pray God the Holy Ghost to help you, and then to put your hand into your pocket, and pull out somebody else\u2019s manuscript, which you have bought, to read it to the people. That borrowing or stealing of another man\u2019s testimony is not what the psalmist means, and I do not see how God can be expected to bless it; but when a man speaks out of the fullness of his own heart of what he has himself tasted, and handled, and felt, then is there power in the testimony. You know how pleased those quacks who sell medicine are when they can get a testimonial from somebody who says that he has been cured by their remedies. Whether or not the most of those testimonials that are published are manufactured at home, I cannot tell; but if they do get a genuine recommendation from some living person, testifying to the beneficial effect of their medicine, how they try to make it known everywhere! Well, surely, there is common sense in that, for \u2019men are convinced by the testimony of others.<\/p>\n
It is for this reason that we, who have experienced the working of God\u2019s <\/i>grace should bear our own personal testimony concerning what he hath clone for our soul. There is no man who can speak with power about the grace of God. unless he has felt its influence in his own heart; but personal witness-bearing is always effective. \u201cI preached,\u201d said John Bunyan, \u201cvery often, like a man in chains to men in chains.\u201d He heard his own fetters rattle while he talked to others about the bondage of sin; and I am sure that then he must have spoken in. a most convincing way; but when he regained his liberty, then he spoke of that emancipation like one who had not a fetter left upon him, and his hearers began to believe in such freedom as he described, and to ask how they could obtain the same. If you have really tasted that the Lord is gracious, and you declare to others what you have experienced of his graciousness, some at least among your hearers will believe you. There will be the accent of conviction about your message; and even if they do not believe you, then so much the greater will be their sin in remaining in unbelief after they have had the honest and hearty witness of a true man whose word they dare not question.<\/p>\n
Think, dear friends, if God does not get witnesses among those who have had their sins forgiven, whence are his witnesses to come? If you and I, who have had his love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, do not praise him, who will do so? Are you going to leave this work to worldlings? Then it never will be done. Are you going to hand over the testimony to the preciousness of Jesus to any chance body who may come along? Oh, let it not be so, but say within yourself, \u201cSurely, the Very stones would rise and speak if I remained silent; and the timber out of the wall might cry against me if I did not tell what the Lord has done for my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have thus tried to set before you the works of the Lord which are to be declared, the reasons why we should declare them, and the persons who should be engaged in this blessed business of declaring the works of the Lord.<\/p>\n
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IV. <\/b>Now, in the fourth place, I want, with all my heart, to stir up your hearts and my own also to The Duty Of Declaring God\u2019s Works.<\/p>\n
Dear brothers and sisters, as many of you as know the Lord, I pray you to declare his works, and to be encouraged to do so because, first, it is a very simple duty<\/i>. I wish that some preachers whom I know would think that it is so. When I have heard most elaborate discourses, or have known brethren labor at their sermons clay after day, I have wondered what their idea of true preaching could be. A minister said to me, some time ago, \u201cI am disappointed with my people, for, when I study very hard, and prepare a sermon that takes me a whole fortnight to complete, they never seem to appreciate it; but the other day,\u201d said he, \u201cI had been so busy that I just went into the pulpit, and talked upon a very simple theme concerning Jesus and his love, \u2014 just such a sermon as I should deliver if I were suddenly called up from my bed, and bidden to preach in my shirt sleeves, \u2014 and my people greatly enjoyed that simple kind of talk!\u201d \u201cWell then,\u201d I replied, \u201cif I were in your place, I should give them another discourse of the same sort; I should preach some more of those shirt-sleeve sermons, if they feed on them, and enjoy them.\u201d The fact is, brethren, it is possible to hammer a sermon so long as to get all the goodness out of it, just as men will beat a beef-steak till they have driven all the juice out of it, and so give you nothing but a tough piece of leather. It is very possible to elaborate a sermon until you have worked all that is good out of it. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ meant that his ministers should go into the world, and preach such masterly sermons that they should almost suffer from softening of the brain, and I do not know what besides, because of the strain and struggle to get at what, according to my Bible, is very plain and simple? Is there not in all this a good deal of desire to shine and to seem to be somebody of importance? I do believe it is so, but it ought not to be. The very philosophy of preaching is, to \u201cdeclare the works of the Lord.\u201d I do believe that, often, our simplest language is the best we can use. I have some very rare flowers in my conservatory, but I must confess that I like a primrose or even a daisy as well as any of them. When you are teaching, my clear friends, pluck your illustrations from the fields and the hedge. rows, and they will be better far than those which are brought from distant lands, and\u2019 die on the road.<\/p>\n
Is it not a very simple thing to tell what the Lord has done? Next time you try to preach a sermon, my young friend, you do just that; tell what the Lord Jesus Christ did, and never mind how you do it. Tell out as well as ever you can what Jesus Christ did, but do not think so much of how you tell it as of what you are to tell.<\/p>\n
Another time, make known what the Holy Spirit has done in you. \u201cWhy, I could tell that! \u201csays one. Of course you could; and that is the very best kind of discourse. \u201cOh, but,\u201d says another, \u201cwe must take time for study!\u201d Certainly, study God\u2019s Word with all your might; but there are parts of it which are so simple that they do not require any study, those parts which you yourself have tasted and handled and felt. The simpler and plainer your personal testimony concerning them is, the more likely will you be to do good by it. Come, then, my brothers and sisters, do not go sailing all over the seas to pick up some rarities to display in a great congregation; but when you get two or three people together, just tell them what you have experienced of the grace of God in your own soul You know that this is what I cannot tell \u201cWhat!\u201d you ask, \u201cis there something we know that you do not?\u201d Yes, of course there is; I can tell what has been clone in my own soul, but I cannot tell what has been done in yours. You have a portion of testimony for Christ which nobody but yourselves can give. This work of glorifying the grace of God is a mosaic; I can put in my little pieces of stone or marble to form the pattern so far, but there is another part of that mosaic which nobody but yourselves can manufacture. It can be made out of the odds and ends of your spiritual experience, as you think them to be but insignificant and unimportant as they seem to be, they help to complete the whole design. Therefore, do not keep back that portion, I pray you, for you can now see what a simple duty it is for every child of God to declare the works of the Lord.<\/p>\n
Then notice what a very manifest duty <\/i>it is that you should tell out what God has done for you. Does this need any proof? Do you think that the Lord saved you that you might just be happy, keeping your joy within your own heart, ever feeding and fattening it? I do not think the Lord had such a narrow purpose as that in his mind when he saved you. Depend upon it, if God has given you a jewel to wear, it is that other eyes may be gladdened by the sight of it. He never lit the candle of his love for you to go and hide yourself in your own room, shutting the door, and saying to yourself, \u201cWhat a charming candle I have! What a beautiful light it gives! How I do enjoy its brightness!\u201d No; when the Lord gave you that candle, he intended it to give light to all in the house, and he also meant that other candles might be lighted by it. \u201cI had such a sweet experience, the other day,\u201d says one. Had you? Then, do you not think it was given to you because another person needed it as much as you yourself did, and that, therefore, you are to go and ten it? There are some hearers who, if we preach the doctrines of grace, sit and suck them in; but if we try to bring sinners to Christ, they say, \u201cWe did not get fed to-night.\u201d And pray, who are you? Do you think that God sent his servant to do nothing but to feed you with a spoon? There are other things for the minister to do Besides looking after you. I think that, sometimes, it is our duty to leave the ninety and nine, and to go after the one that has gone astray; not so much to feed the people of God, as to search for such as are out of the way. And I notice that the people of God are generally best fed when that is the case, and they feel the most joy when the preacher is seeking the salvation of sinners. If you, my friends, are not happy when that is being done, there is something wrong with you; you had better ask the great Physician to give you a dose of heavenly medicine to cure you of that sad disease. You are spiritually out of order, for he who is in a right condition towards Christ loves the souls of men, and delights in that teaching which God is likely to bless to their conversion. It is, therefore, a manifest duty for us to tell to others what the Lord has done for us, that they also may come and drink of the river of the water of life, and never thirst again.<\/p>\n
Notice also that this is a very profitable duty. <\/i>I hardly know of anything that is more useful to a Christian than to tell out what the Lord has done for him. There is a lad in a school, and he is getting on very well, and he can only have another year\u2019s schooling. I have known this proposal made to his parents: let him become a kind of pupil-teacher, let him continue to learn, and let him also begin to teach others. I was once in that condition myself, and I can bear my testimony that I never learned so much, or learned so thoroughly, as when I had to teach others. When I first began to preach, this was my usual way of working. I was up in the morning early, praying and reading the Word, then all day I was either teaching or studying hard; but at five o\u2019clock every evening, except Saturday, I started out to preach what I had learned during the day. I used to tell out to the people, simply and earnestly, what I had first received into my own mind and heart; and I found that I derived greater benefit by proclaiming to others what I had learned than if I had kept it all to myself. I do not believe that you can thoroughly know the doctrines of grace till you begin to teach them to other people. You will soon find that they will not receive them, and so you will learn the doctrine of man\u2019s natural depravity. You will speedily discover that your eloquence will not draw them to Christ, and in that way you will learn the doctrine of effectual calling, \u2014 that the Holy Spirit must himself come and work upon them if they are to be saved. You will prove that some will reject Christ though you thought they were most likely to accept him, and that others, who you felt sure would refuse him, wilt be the first to receive him; there you have the great doctrine of divine sovereignty. You see, from your own observation, how the Lord has compassion upon whom he will have compassion, and how he has mercy upon whom he will have mercy. You will never know the truth in all its fullness till with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, you have attempted to inculcate it in the hearts of others. So that it is a profitable duty to \u201cdeclare the works of the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, it is a very pleasant duty to <\/i>those who practice it. I can testify that it is one of the most delightful exercises in the world, to tell out the lovingkindness of the Lord. Old soldiers at Chelsea barracks, or old sailors at Greenwich, .who could recollect Waterloo and Trafalgar, never tired of telling the familiar story. If you could have crept up behind them, when there were half-a-dozen people round, you would have found that they were talking about the battles they were in long years ago. They would be sure to linger over the details of their escapes and their heroic deeds, for it is a pleasure to old men thus to fight their battles o\u2019er again. And, certainly, it must be a pleasure to Christians, who have experienced the wonderful working of God\u2019s grace, to tell out that far sweeter story. It does seem to me that this ought to be our constant delight; there should be no need for me to have to come here, and urge you to this happy task. Why, brothers and sisters, you ought to be like the Israelites when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, and with them you should cry, \u201cThe Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.\u201d Tell it out among the heathen, make it known unto the utmost ends of the earth, that the Lord our God hath given his own Son to die. that we might be redeemed from wrath through him. Be not silent, beloved, but publish night and day the lovingkindness of the Lord.<\/p>\n
This ought also to be a constant duty with all who love the Lord. When we have once told the story, we ought to feel bound to tell it again and again and again. It is the man who never has spoken for Christ who never does speak for him; he who has been silent is all too apt to continue silent. It is good for you young people, when you are newly-converted, to bear your testimony at the church-meeting. It often opens your mouths for Christ for the first time; and I exhort you, when you begin in the workshop or the workroom as a believer in Jesus, when you begin Christian life anywhere, begin it not as if you were possessed of a deaf and dumb devil, but as if you first heard the voice of God, and then spoke out what he had said to you. I may be addressing some who are getting quite old, who have not yet borne their testimony for Christ. O my dear friends, wake up! You will have to be quick, or else your opportunity for testifying will be over. I could almost imagine that you would want to come back from heaven to tell somebody about Jesus if you had not done it while you were-here; then, do not think of going there till you have told all you can about your glorious Lord.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I cannot,\u201d says one. What can you not do? If you were to be cured of a dreadful disease, I am sure you would be able to tell somebody who the doctor was. And if, to-night, a thief were to break into your house, and a policeman came and seized him, I am sure you would tell somebody to-morrow about what had occurred. \u201cBut,\u201d you say, \u201cI am such a poor one at talking.\u201d I am not sorry to hear that; there are many who might be improved if they were like you in that respect; but, still, you can generally tell what happens, and you can certainly tell what the Lord hath done for you if you only seek the aid of the Holy Spirit. So, put away all that deadness and dullness of yours, rob God no longer of the glory due unto his name, but tell what he hath done for your soul.<\/p>\n
Do you ask, \u201cWhom shall I tell?\u201d Well, good man, tell your wife, if you have never yet spoken to her about these things. Christian woman, do you enquire, \u201cWhom shall I tell?\u201d Why, tell your husband, and your children! You cannot have a better congregation than your own. family. Are you in a factory? Tell your work-mates about Jesus Christ. There was a brother, worshipping with us, who went into a certain workshop, and he very soon bore his testimony in such a fashion that his master and the three other men in the place were all converted, and now they are all members of this church, and their wives, too. When the husbands had heard the truth themselves, they wanted to go home that they might tell it to them wives, and so they have all been brought in; and, lately, there has been a new workman brought into the shop, who did not love the things of God, and could not bear religion, but God has blessed our brother to him also. Tell it out then, tell it out, you who have been lately converted, do not hide your light under a bushel. Imitate Brother Gwillim over yonder, and others in this place who are always glad to have a word with the anxious, after the service is over; speak up for your Lord whenever you have the opportunity.<\/p>\n
I believe that it is a great help in bringing people to decision when Mr. Moody asks those to stand up who wish to be prayed for. Anything that tends to separate you from the ungodly around you, is good for you. Now, if you have given yourselves to Christ, tell it out; for, after that, you cannot go back to the world, you will feel that the vows of the Lord are upon you. When Caesar landed on a certain shore, he burned the boats behind him, so that .his men might know that they must conquer or perish. I advise you to do likewise; burn your boats by a clear and explicit declaration, \u201cThe Lord hath wrought this great change in me by his grace, and I am his servant henceforth, and for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
May God bless you, dear friends, every one, for Jesus Christ\u2019s sake! Amen<\/p>\n
HYMNS FROM \u201cOUR HYMN BOOK\u201d \u2014 408, 670, 673.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 2540 INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD\u2019S-DAY, OCTOBER 24TH, 1897, DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, In connection with the dedication of the Jubilee House, which commemorated thecompletion of the beloved Pastor\u2019s fiftieth year, June 19th, 1884. \u2019 This Sermon was the fourth of the series delivered by MR. Spurgeon in … Continue reading “DECLARING THE WORKS OF THE LORD.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}